Beijing

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My Trip to Beijing.

Hey Guys! So last week I finally went to Beijing. This time for some traveling, sightseeing and catching up with some friends.

While I have been to Beijing when I first arrived in China, I haven’t done any travelling or sightseeing so I’ve been planning on going back for a long time. Last week I finished my first semester of University and when my host family asked me if I would like to join them on their trip to Beijing, I of course took the chance. While it was a bummer that we took the train from the 12.31 to 1.1 and therefore I couldn’t celebrate New Year, it was totally worth it.

After taking the train from Zhuhai at around 7 at night, we arrived at 7 am in Beijing and were welcomed with freezing temperature. While I thought Zhuhai with its 10-15 Degrees was cold, Beijing reminded me what a normal winter is like. After my Host family dropped me off at my Hotel (I was staying on my own) I decided to adventure a little bit around Nanluoguxiang and Houhai. Nanluoguxiang is a very popular shopping street in the old part of Beijing. With the Buildings normally only being 1-2 Floors tall and many different Shops, from traditional food and clothes to Belgium waffles, it is a great street to visit, but because I strolled through it at 8 am and all the shops were closed, I only realized this way later. Houhai is one of the three lakes (Houhai, Qianhai, Xihai = Back Sea, Front Sea , West Sea ) in the Xicheng district of Beijing and is well known for its nightlife.

Later that day I met Jhony who I know from Zhuhai, who has also been visiting Beijing. He introduced me to two of his friends and together we took off to see the Summer Palace. Sadly, because Jhony had to go leave on the same day, we only had a couple of hours to stroll through the huge park, filled with beautiful frozen lakes and interesting building. After saying goodbye I went to Nanluoguxiang and Houhai again, just now to find out what popular places they are. On the next day after having Breakfast I just went on walking, without a plan, and where lucky enough to stumble upon the Jingshan Park. After climbing it up I not only saw the white pagoda of the nearby Beihai Park, but also, emerging out of the smog of Beijing, the roof tops of the Forbidden City.Without knowing it, I went to one of the most popular parks in Beijing. After having a look at the Forbidden City from the outside, I decided to go to the white Pagoda on top of a mountain in Beihai Park. Beihai Park is one of the largest parks in China and has a variety of beautiful buildings and lakes. After spending most of daylight time in the park, I decided I wanted to visit the Olympic sport sights on the same day. I used the Subway to get there in the evening and arrived around 9pm. The Olympic sport sights is a huge area, build for thousands of thousands of people during the Olympic Games in 2008. Besides the huge Stadium “birds nest” and the Olympic pool “Water Cube” it also consist of small parks, huge streets and towers. Because I went there at night, and of course because there is no games going on right now, standing in the streets, which where normally build for a huge number of people, was very interesting.

After taking the Subway back to Nanluoguxiang I bummed into Josh, an Australian guy who has been backpacking through Singapore and china for his winter break, and we decided to go for a drink at one of houhai’s many bars. While we enjoyed the live music (which is played in almost every bar in houhai) the price of one beer (40 Yuan / 6 euros) was way too expensive on the long run, so shortly after we instead went to a small pub in some site street to play some Snooker.

On the next morning Josh introduced me to Apollo, a guy from America who was spending his break in Beijing. Together we first went to see Tiananmen Square and then afterwards we went into the Forbidden City. While it was crowded in both places, we didn’t have to wait too long to get the tickets.

The Forbidden City with its huge squares, beautiful buildings and twisted street is definitely something worthwhile visiting. We spend the whole afternoon there but couldn’t even visit all of the places because the city is really big. After having Dinner with Josh and Apollo we went out to houhai again to meet some Canadian/American friends of Josh and soon ended up in the same bar of last night since the prices and houhai were just too high.

On the next day I went to meet Annalena, I German girl who I’ve met at the Au-pair house before. After having lunch at her University we went to see the Lama temple, a renowned lama temple of the Yellow Hat Sect of Lamaism, It houses a treasury of Buddhist art, including sculptured images of gods, demons and Buddha’s, as well as Tibetan-style murals. The temple's crowning glory is the breathtaking 18-m-tall statue of Maitreya (Buddha of Future).

At night Apollo and I (Josh went on traveling to Xi’an) decided to look for some famous restaurant near houhai, but we got lost and half frozen to death just went with some small restaurant in a site street. There we had a great tasting Hot pot and some interesting conversations with the owner of the restaurant, who was too happy to meet some foreigners who could speak (somewhat good) Chinese.

On the next day I decided to visit the Great Wall. While there are many old parts of the Wall, which are certainly more entertaining to climb but are only accessible with a traveling group, I decided to travel on my own( a lot cheaper) to the most famous part of the wall called Badaling. After taking the Subway I changed to a direct train to the wall. After more than a one hour I arrived at the great wall where I got to know Li Qin and his family. He was really happy to meet a foreign guy and told me about his plans of becoming a doctor and maybe even going to Germany. He also told me that after a Chinese saying, I was now finally a hero/good person, since whom does not have reached the great wall, is not a good man. Together we walked the Great Wall for about an hour before Li Qin went back because the trip was too exhausting for his parents. I kept walking for another hour, before I reached the end of the part I was walking. The Wall is a great experience, and a lot harder to walk than I expected it to be. With huge slops and freezing temperatures it was a good workout. The awesome hike was only bummed by huge speakers, every 300 meters or so, repeating over and over again the safety rules in Chinese…. But when the wind was right, and after I hiked for about an hour to a point where I left the crowded sections behind, the feeling on hiking on the great wall is truly marvelous.

On the way back on the train I ran into two Germans who joined me for dinner near Nanluoguxiang and made me realize how bad my German is again ......

On the last day of my trip I went to the office of my Exchange Organization and met Yu and Yuxienne and grabbed lunch and coffee with them. There were quite surprised when they realized I could speak a little bit of chine now, since the last time I’ve met them was in the beginning of my stay in China and my Chinese skills where basically non existing. After this I went on crossing of the last big thing on my bucket list, the Temple of Heaven, also known as Altar of Heaven. While walking through its garden I not only bumped into a bunch of interesting people but also got a text message that I passed my HsK3 (Yeeeessssssss), which I thought I would have certainly failed.

After calling it an early night I went of taking the plane on the next morning and arrived safe in Zhuhai.



I had a great time in Beijing, while i first was a little bit worried on staying on my own for almost a week, i quickly made some friends and went on seeing great things. I hope y'all enjoyed this entry, and i recommend you should have a look for yourself 😊

As for now I’m in my holidays and will probably start the next semester on March 3^rd. I’m also super excited for my trip to Tokyo in February to meet my friends Soya and Riho.

As always, thanks for reading, check out the pictures below and feel free to leave a message.



Linus

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Photos

The Great Wall
at Badaling

Forbidden City
at the Exit of the Forbidden City with Josh and Apollo

Badaling
All thanks to Li Qin for taking this picture on top of the Great Wall

Forbidden City emerging out of the Smog
I wasn't planning on going to the Forbidden City, but while i was climbing some mountain in the first park i stumbled upon , i realized that i have found it .

Dinner with Apollo
Great tasting Hot Pot !